Isobar India, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has introduced the Blind Faith Upgrade, a thoughtful and cause-oriented initiative under accessible tourism. A sustainable step towards accessible tourism, this initiative explores the challenges faced by visually-impaired travellers and allows the hotel to transform any of its rooms into a visually-impaired-friendly room. The launch of the initiative was first introduced at Hotel Ramada, Ajmer.

The Agency looks at expanding the initiative further to other corners of tourism industry where accessibility is a major concern across the nation. A successful tourism product requires effective partnerships and cooperation across many sectors at the national, regional and international levels. The impact of accessible tourism thus goes beyond the tourist beneficiaries to the wider society, engraining accessibility into the social and economic values of society.

In the light of the growing awareness for accessible tourism in India and the alarming ratio 1:250 of differently-abled-friendly hotel rooms to the total number of hotel rooms, Isobar introduced this initiative at Hotel Ramada, Ajmer with the Blind Faith Upgrade Kit. The kit includes Braille labels which can convert any phone into a Braille-enabled phone, reusable tactile paving tiles and Braille literature with audio assist. Available for purchase on theblindfaithupgrade.com, the kit is on an open-source model, inviting all players in the tourism industry to implement the same and spread more awareness for accessible tourism.

Garnering immensely positive feedback, the video has received more than 1 million views since its launch.

Manish Gupta, General Manager, Hotel Ramada, Ajmer said, “At Ramada, we are constantly working to deliver better hospitality experiences to our patrons. We are glad we could take up the Blind Faith Upgrade initiative; it fits right into our vision. As a hospitality brand, it’s our objective to deliver accessible tourism to all. This is an important step towards it.”

On the launch of this initiative, Shamsuddin Jasani, MD Isobar India states, “We’re all accountable towards building a community in which we wish to live – not just for ourselves, but for generations to come. We at Isobar are trying to focus on overcoming key challenges in our quest for a sustainable community. We are looking at taking this a step towards creating an informed society and urging the other key players across tourism industry to adopt the same across their properties in India. ”

Speaking about the project, Gopa Kumar, Executive Vice President, Isobar India shares, “Accessibility is a key concern for letting the elderly and differently-abled people feel confident that they can travel without facing any problems. We hope this initiative would help spread further awareness about accessible tourism and bring further advancements across larger players within the hospitality space.”

Anish Varghese, National Creative Director, Isobar India added, “We wanted to bring to light the fact that, being differently-abled is not the obstacle, accessibility is. We developed a solution that allows any hotel to transform any of its rooms into a comfortable, convenient place of stay for the visually-impaired. It’s our step towards ensuring universal accessibility.”